Effect of silhouetting and inversion on view invariance in the monkey inferotemporal cortex

We effortlessly recognize objects across changes in viewpoint, but we know relatively little about the features that underlie viewpoint invariance in the brain. Here, we set out to characterize how viewpoint invariance in monkey inferior temporal (IT) neurons is influenced by two image manipulations—silhouetting and inversion. Reducing an object into its silhouette removes internal detail, so this would reveal how much viewpoint invariance depends on the external contours. Inverting an object retains but rearranges features, so this would reveal how much viewpoint invariance depends on the arrangement and orientation of features. Our main findings are 1) view invariance is weakened by silhouetting but not by inversion; 2) view invariance was stronger in neurons that generalized across silhouetting and inversion; 3) neuronal responses to natural objects matched early with that of silhouettes and only later to that of inverted objects, indicative of coarse-to-fine processing; and 4) the impact of silhouetting and inversion depended on object structure. Taken together, our results elucidate the underlying features and dynamics of view-invariant object representations in the brain. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We easily recognize objects across changes in viewpoint, but the underlying features are unknown. Here, we show that view invariance in the monkey inferotemporal cortex is driven mainly by external object contours and is not specialized for object orientation. We also find that the responses to natural objects match with that of their silhouettes early in the response, and with inverted versions later in the response—indicative of a coarse-to-fine processing sequence in the brain.

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How does the brain rapidly learn and reorganize view-invariant and position-invariant object representations in the inferotemporal cortex?

Neural Networks ◽

10.1016/j.neunet.2011.04.004 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (10) ◽

pp. 1050-1061 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Yongqiang Cao ◽

Stephen Grossberg ◽

Jeffrey Markowitz

Keyword(s):

Object Representations ◽

Inferotemporal Cortex ◽

The Brain

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Miniaturization and Automation of a Human In Vitro Blood–Brain Barrier Model for the High-Throughput Screening of Compounds in the Early Stage of Drug Discovery

Pharmaceutics ◽

10.3390/pharmaceutics13060892 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 892

Author(s):

Elisa L. J. Moya ◽

Elodie Vandenhaute ◽

Eleonora Rizzi ◽

Marie-Christine Boucau ◽

Johan Hachani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Discovery ◽

Blood Brain Barrier ◽

Early Stage ◽

Molecular Transport ◽

Brain Barrier ◽

Blood Brain ◽

Cns Drugs ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain

Central nervous system (CNS) diseases are one of the top causes of death worldwide. As there is a difficulty of drug penetration into the brain due to the blood–brain barrier (BBB), many CNS drugs treatments fail in clinical trials. Hence, there is a need to develop effective CNS drugs following strategies for delivery to the brain by better selecting them as early as possible during the drug discovery process. The use of in vitro BBB models has proved useful to evaluate the impact of drugs/compounds toxicity, BBB permeation rates and molecular transport mechanisms within the brain cells in academic research and early-stage drug discovery. However, these studies that require biological material (animal brain or human cells) are time-consuming and involve costly amounts of materials and plastic wastes due to the format of the models. Hence, to adapt to the high yields needed in early-stage drug discoveries for compound screenings, a patented well-established human in vitro BBB model was miniaturized and automated into a 96-well format. This replicate met all the BBB model reliability criteria to get predictive results, allowing a significant reduction in biological materials, waste and a higher screening capacity for being extensively used during early-stage drug discovery studies.

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The Impact of Bone on the Biology of Aging

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2643 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 740-740

Author(s):

Gerard Karsenty

Keyword(s):

Muscle Function ◽

Male Fertility ◽

Leydig Cells ◽

Memory Loss ◽

Age Related ◽

Systematic Exploration ◽

Biology Of Aging ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain ◽

Regulate Energy Metabolism

Abstract We hypothesized that bone may secrete hormones that regulate energy metabolism and reproduction. Testing this hypothesis revealed that the osteoblast-specific secreted protein osteocalcin is a hormone regulating glucose homeostasis and male fertility by signaling through a GPCR, Gprc6a, expressed in pancreatic β bells and Leydig cells of the testes. The systematic exploration of osteocalcin biology, revealed that it regulates an unexpectedly large spectrum of physiological functions in the brain and peripheral organs and that it has most features of an antigeromic molecule. As will be presented at the meeting, this body of work suggests that harnessing osteocalcin for therapeutic purposes may be beneficial in the treatment of age-related diseases such as depression, age-related memory loss and the decline in muscle function seen in sarcopenia.

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Crosstalk between Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy and Neurological Sciences in Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Biomedicines ◽

10.3390/biomedicines9040340 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 340

Author(s):

Lehel Balogh ◽

Masaru Tanaka ◽

Nóra Török ◽

László Vécsei ◽

Shigeru Taguchi

Keyword(s):

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Biological Treatment ◽

Sense Of Self ◽

Phenomenological Approach ◽

Neurological Damage ◽

Mood And Anxiety Disorders ◽

New Interpretation ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.

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Agency, Responsibility, Selves, and the Mechanical Mind

Philosophies ◽

10.3390/philosophies6010007 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Fiorella Battaglia

Keyword(s):

Philosophy Of Technology ◽

Extended Mind ◽

Human Machine Interaction ◽

Person Perspective ◽

Legal Perspective ◽

Area Of Concern ◽

Third Person Perspective ◽

The Mind ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain

Moral issues arise not only when neural technology directly influences and affects people’s lives, but also when the impact of its interventions indirectly conceptualizes the mind in new, and unexpected ways. It is the case that theories of consciousness, theories of subjectivity, and third person perspective on the brain provide rival perspectives addressing the mind. Through a review of these three main approaches to the mind, and particularly as applied to an “extended mind”, the paper identifies a major area of transformation in philosophy of action, which is understood in terms of additional epistemic devices—including a legal perspective of regulating the human–machine interaction and a personality theory of the symbiotic connection between human and machine. I argue this is a new area of concern within philosophy, which will be characterized in terms of self-objectification, which becomes “alienation” following Ernst Kapp’s philosophy of technology. The paper argues that intervening in the brain can affect how we conceptualize the mind and modify its predicaments.

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Developmental cannabidiol exposure increases anxiety and modifies genome-wide brain DNA methylation in adult female mice

Clinical Epigenetics ◽

10.1186/s13148-020-00993-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Nicole M. Wanner ◽

Mathia Colwell ◽

Chelsea Drown ◽

Christopher Faulk

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Coat Color ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Functional Enrichment ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Genome Wide ◽

Nulliparous Female ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain

Abstract Background Use of cannabidiol (CBD), the primary non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis, has recently risen dramatically, while relatively little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms of its effects. Previous work indicates that direct CBD exposure strongly impacts the brain, with anxiolytic, antidepressant, antipsychotic, and other effects being observed in animal and human studies. The epigenome, particularly DNA methylation, is responsive to environmental input and can direct persistent patterns of gene regulation impacting phenotype. Epigenetic perturbation is particularly impactful during embryogenesis, when exogenous exposures can disrupt critical resetting of epigenetic marks and impart phenotypic effects lasting into adulthood. The impact of prenatal CBD exposure has not been evaluated; however, studies using the psychomimetic cannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have identified detrimental effects on psychological outcomes in developmentally exposed adult offspring. We hypothesized that developmental CBD exposure would have similar negative effects on behavior mediated in part by the epigenome. Nulliparous female wild-type Agouti viable yellow (Avy) mice were exposed to 20 mg/kg CBD or vehicle daily from two weeks prior to mating through gestation and lactation. Coat color shifts, a readout of DNA methylation at the Agouti locus in this strain, were measured in F1 Avy/a offspring. Young adult F1 a/a offspring were then subjected to tests of working spatial memory and anxiety/compulsive behavior. Reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing was performed on both F0 and F1 cerebral cortex and F1 hippocampus to identify genome-wide changes in DNA methylation for direct and developmental exposure, respectively. Results F1 offspring exposed to CBD during development exhibited increased anxiety and improved memory behavior in a sex-specific manner. Further, while no significant coat color shift was observed in Avy/a offspring, thousands of differentially methylated loci (DMLs) were identified in both brain regions with functional enrichment for neurogenesis, substance use phenotypes, and other psychologically relevant terms. Conclusions These findings demonstrate for the first time that despite positive effects of direct exposure, developmental CBD is associated with mixed behavioral outcomes and perturbation of the brain epigenome.

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Preserving Integrity in the Face of Performance Threat

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797612448483 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 23 (12) ◽

pp. 1455-1460 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Lisa Legault ◽

Timour Al-Khindi ◽

Michael Inzlicht

Keyword(s):

Error Detection ◽

Error Monitoring ◽

Error Related Negativity ◽

Threatening Information ◽

Electrophysiological Responses ◽

The Face ◽

And Performance ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain

Self-affirmation produces large effects: Even a simple reminder of one’s core values reduces defensiveness against threatening information. But how, exactly, does self-affirmation work? We explored this question by examining the impact of self-affirmation on neurophysiological responses to threatening events. We hypothesized that because self-affirmation increases openness to threat and enhances approachability of unfavorable feedback, it should augment attention and emotional receptivity to performance errors. We further hypothesized that this augmentation could be assessed directly, at the level of the brain. We measured self-affirmed and nonaffirmed participants’ electrophysiological responses to making errors on a task. As we anticipated, self-affirmation elicited greater error responsiveness than did nonaffirmation, as indexed by the error-related negativity, a neural signal of error monitoring. Self-affirmed participants also performed better on the task than did nonaffirmed participants. We offer novel brain evidence that self-affirmation increases openness to threat and discuss the role of error detection in the link between self-affirmation and performance.

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